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It would have been a lot of fun to watch this episode without knowing beforehand what was going to happen. I wonder if that’s possible, somehow. Perhaps traveling back in time…
Gonna have to be careful with the front page caps this week, that’s for sure. Mirai Nikki is one wild ride – after 23 insane eps, it’s only now that things are truly getting crazy. We continue to see the benefit of the breakneck pacing in the eps leading up to the final arc, as the anime is really able to take its time and savor this ending – and even add some bits and pieces to the manga’s version of events, like the appearances of Sixth and Eleventh in the Third World. Heck, there was even another Murumuru omake, which was the last thing I expected – though they certainly made it relevant to the episode. I think those short added scenes added a nice bit of color to the manga version, and if anything Ninth’s grand re-entrance was even grander in the anime.
Yes, that’s right, Uryuu Minene is back – did you really think a character that cool and GAR could be gone forever? It was hard to keep a straight face when I was writing my post for episode 21, and I was worried I was laying it on a little thick – but I made up a little game, to see if I could write those paragraphs about Ninth without actually saying anything untrue. You remember that little conversation she had with Deus, that seemed to be forgotten soon after it was shown? Now you know – and you know the degree of subterfuge that’s been at work behind the scenes of this game from the minute we started eavesdropping on it. The folks playing at the highest levels are no fools, that’s for sure – they’re tough opponents, and Yuno’s chess analogy seems pretty apt to me.
Yuno has always been one of the toughest characters in manga to come to terms with – she’s the embodiment of the yandere trope (Queen, God, take your pick) but she seems to transcend it, and her motivations and indeed her moral standing can’t be pigeonholed easily. And that’s especially true now that we have multiple Yunos to consider. With each new world, we’ve been given a deeper glimpse into the horror that was her life before the game. Here it’s adopted, with an absent father and a mother who loathes her, punishing her for any offense by locking her in a case, feeding her tatami straw… Whatever any of these Yunos became, she was a victim first – but even the first Yuno, the one Yukiteru pledged to save, was already a killer by the time she truly entered his life, and the second Yuno ended hers.
If Deus is to be believed, Yuno has already become a God at least once, and the current Murumuru is her servant, and secretly replaced the Murumuru from the world we’d call “First”. With Murumuru surreptitiously trying to bend the game in Second’s favor a lot of things make sense now, but this is literally a new world – third world where there are two Yunos again, where the other diary holders are alive, and with a Deus-powered Minene flying about with Yukiteru. For his part, Yukiteru has accepted his own guilt, but pledged himself to save this world’s Yuno as he couldn’t save his own. But if you think about the timelines involved, well… I shouldn’t say more, except that there’s lots of stuff in this episode to help it all make sense, and that you should be watching and listening very carefully because all the information you need is there – Sakae-sensei may have a hell of an imagination, but he’s not a cheater.
As we’re already well into the Spring season, it’s nice to have a few final episodes of Mirai Nikki to offer a contrast – it’s unusual to watch a long-running anime coming to an end while the rest of them are just getting started. What I’m most curious about now is whether Asread decides to go beyond the realm of cosmetic and stylistic changes to the manga and actually make substantive ones. They have the time, should they choose to – though for the record, the evidence I’ve seen so far offers nothing to suggest this won’t be an ending faithful to the manga in substance, if not necessarily 100% in style. The only thing I can say with certainty is that Murumuru is a very, very bad counselor.
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Snuckerpooks
April 2, 2012 at 8:15 amEveryone is rocking a new look and the show makes it look even better. For me this show started to lose its flair at about episode 15 or so. The storyline is getting a little too convoluted with the changing timelines but the characters are what really have a good GRIP on me. Gasai's "lets duel" face near the very end just kept me till the very end of this show.
It is good to see Uryuu isn't dead, but I can't but think of all the people that complained about Guilty Crown and their resurrection that will let the endless time gaps be okay.
admin
April 2, 2012 at 8:25 amI honestly feel this is very different from GC, because the scenario here actually makes sense with the internal logic of the story. It was also foreshadowed in the show, so you could actually have seen it coming if you knew what you were looking for.
Snuckerpooks
April 2, 2012 at 10:35 amYeah, it is different from GC and I guess it is a little different of a perception as I did not read the manga, unlike yourself. I was completely blindsided.
I was still hung up on there being two Yuno's and I thought there might be twins but she killed the other off and took her place (Like bad twin kills good twin). Man, was I in for a trip when it started the time sequences. All of that hit me like a train as I had to play catch-up by watching 21-24 back-to-back with no time to think and let it settle in as a story.
SQA
April 2, 2012 at 5:44 pmI believe Deus is the "god of time & space". Most of this was setup in the beginning, but like most good sci-fi, it was just well hidden for a long time.
And Guilty Crown was just a train wreck that had little thought built into its world. Mirai Nikki, for all its faults, at least has a thought out world. Though more twists are on the way.
Anonymous
April 2, 2012 at 12:43 pmgreat scott if doc brown, doctor who, & den-o crew saw this yea so what they did time stuff & go like uh onore decade on it?
flashbacks of yuno started with dead mom, bunny, & 1st yuno axe the 2nd yuno with murmur siding helping 1st yuno.
now after seeing of yuki still what to do can't kill yuno.
yea yuno plan do it again on next world cue calling yuno "insane" see ya next fall.
yuki falling look like yuno win but yuki climbing to save yuno but fall again.
suprise our 9th bomber is back with new arm save yuki.
murmur black balls & missile attack but nothing happen there ok.
so now another time leap to 3rd world.
yuki & 9th arrive in 3rd world ask how 9th is ok yea deus doing especially give some deus power to 9th.
cause deus know murmur's plans so want 9th to stop them have game all safe.
now in 3rd world in 2yrs in the past seeing yuno will go after 3rd yuno so save yuno no.3.
meanwhile 3rd yuno in cage with mom so upset ever more left her in cage & go.
brief cameo of 3rd world's 6th-tsubaki & 11th-mayor give 11th all ready show dairy to 3rd deus with 3rd deus notice something.
yuki & 9th arrive in gasai house give 9th saying don't change past see 3rd yuno so much pain.
yea yuki you has to alter the timelines & boom here yuno & murmur.
make more uh-oh they got 3rd world? yuki's parents in the ball.
so 9th & yuki retreat for now with 9th asking what do you want yuno, 3rd yuno, parents, etc?!
mur-mur extra on doing phone chat with yuno's mom with mur-mur listen all yuno's mom probs yea 5 times cause mur-mur only listen to probs yea indeed.
oh man so much yea i'm so going like what next?
dv
April 2, 2012 at 1:09 pmOkay. Time to switch to Big Order now that this is ending
I missed the line used in the manga. When Yukiteru fell off the cliff and ninth saved him. Yuno was like "No! the Diary me and the current me are different. I don't wanna save him!" But her face was just so sad, you'll know she is lying.
Wished they had animated that
SQA
April 2, 2012 at 5:45 pmThose eyes on Yuno. Damn. Also a nice contrast with her look at the beginning of the episode.